Introducing Pressidium

I first became acquainted with Pressidium in February 2015 when my friend Stacey Corrin introduced them on her blog.

I was immediately impressed with them - there was something a bit different about Pressidium compared to other web hosts. So, I decided to follow along and see how things developed...

I was conducting my own research on web hosts and reading lots of reviews on various sites. And then in March 2015, Stacey posted about Pressidium again, this time highlighting her first month onboard.

Today I'd like to share my experience of Pressidium:

Why I Chose Pressidium

How I Transitioned to Pressidium

Why You Should Consider Pressidium Too

But first lets just recap on my options...

Managed WordPress Hosting Options

If you recall in Part 1 a few weeks back I told you about my current predicament with Bluehost, and concluded that I needed either VPS Hosting or Managed WordPress Hosting.

Well, I decided to choose Managed WordPress Hosting.

Managed WordPress Hosting should save you time and let you focus on what you do best.

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I couldn't see any real reason to have a VPS solution. For my friend Ron it's the perfect fit, as he needs many WordPress installations for his business model.

When it comes to Managed WordPress Hosting it seems that the most popular brand you see around is WP Engine. They are well-established and have many raving fans.

Naturally, I landed on their site and did my fair share of reading. There was a nice pop-up chat window in which a customer rep helped answer my questions, so kudos to them for a friendly, responsive service.

Some of the other popular “Managed WordPress” providers include:

Flywheel

Web Synthesis

Pagely

Rainmaker

I took a look at these briefly, but in truth I knew this would be a two-way contest between WP Engine and Pressidium.

Like WP Engine, I did my research on Pressidium reading as much as I could find on the web. But sometimes you just need to go direct. So I pinged a mail to Stacey asking her if she could help answer my questions.

She introduced me to Andrew Georges (Co-Founder) and a couple of hours later I received a thorough email answering all my questions and more...

Andrew offered to have a telephone/Skype conversation so that I could discuss things in more detail...

Later in the week I had the conversation with Andrew, and we just chatted for an hour or so about hosting and technical stuff and transition and support and ...well lots of things 🙂

One of the questions I posed to Andrew was about the term 'DevOps' which crops up a lot on the Pressidium website.

How would you define the role of a DevOp, compared with a SysAdmin?

“To be honest, there’s not much of a difference. Using the term SysAdmin is basically the old way of describing pretty much what a DevOps does. DevOps is you could say, a rebranded term.

It comes down to philosophy, a SysAdmin tries to keep a system stable and operational, and will often slow down the development process in the name of continuous operation. While a DevOps becomes part of the development cycle, tries to understand the business case and use case of every project and tries to marry it's deployment into production (operations).

A DevOps is a SysAdmin in the role of a technical facilitator for a developer, he/she makes things happen and the devcycle more efficient.”

And so began my journey with Pressidium. I hadn't signed anything or paid any money, but I just knew I would end up with them.

Security

If you've read my previous articles you'll know I'm very keen on Security and Backups. There is no way I would sign-up for any hosting service without checking these.

Pressidium build security into their architecture, so that there is no need for an additional WordPress security plugin. What's more if anything untoward were to work its way through the multiple firewalls they would fix it for you; i.e. no expensive clean-up bills!

Pressidium run daily backups of your websites and you also have the option to run a manual backup at any time, for example, before updating a plugin or theme. This guarantees you have a safe restore point in case of any unforeseen problems.

In addition, you get a staging area for each of your websites so that you can create a clone of production and trial new software and settings without anyone, not even Google, knowing about it.

pinnacle ˈpɪnək(ə)l/ (noun) – the point of greatest successPressidium® Pinnacle Platform delivers the security you need to safely propel your site to the highest points of success

Support

Pressidium provide different kinds of support.

By that, I don't mean good and bad support!

No, I mean proactive and reactive support.

- Proactive Support

Being the experienced bunch of tech guys that they are, the Pressidium team have put in place a number of monitoring systems so that they can ensure everything is running smoothly. These systems run 24/7 and if there is the slightest blip they're on it in a flash.

I was updating a couple of plugins one evening and my site temporarily entered maintenance mode. I had an auto ticket and email from Andrew before the update completed!

We make it our mission to keep your websites up and running as much as we’re able to. We don’t guarantee that there’ll never be a time when stuff goes a bit wonky. We’re only human. But we do work tirelessly around the clock to ensure this doesn’t happen often.​

- Reactive Support

We all have questions from time-to-time about WordPress, but where do you find the answers? Most likely you check Google, or a Forum, or ask a friend?

With Pressidium, not only do you get the technical engineers, you get a team of WP Experts!

Support is available 24/7 through tickets and standard support hours via phone.

Because we specialize in WordPress, and have such significant and diverse experience, we’re able to answer questions and diagnose issues that 90% of all hosting companies wouldn’t touch. From “Hey, my site is having issues“, to “Can you recommend a plugin for XYZ?“. We’re here to help!

Pricing

I know some people would rank pricing as the most important consideration when choosing a web host, or any other commodity for that matter. As Adam said:

- It’s worth paying more for a faster host with better support and security.

So with all that Pressidium has to offer you might be thinking that their prices would be higher than average. But they're not. In fact they are slightly cheaper.

Pressidium

$49.90 / month

WP Engine

1 WordPress Install

25K visits/month

10GB Storage Space

SSL and CDN not included

$29 / month

Culture

There's one final ranking factor I want to include here about Pressidium and that is Culture.

You may have picked this up already, but the Pressidium Team are a little different to other web hosts. For a start they are admittedly Techie. They don't profess to be expert marketers. They focus on their technical engineering skills and passion for WordPress to provide a premium hosting platform.

One of my initial questions to Andrew and the team was how they differentiated themselves.

Most of all we’re completely transparent about what we do and how we do it. We’re not interested in making massive profits, but rather we want to change the way people think of hosting in general."

A Premium Managed WordPress Hosting Platform for Everyone

The Pressidium philosophy is to treat you as a partner, rather than a customer. They make a point of getting to know you and your business so that they can provide the best possible service. Its a win-win for all!

How I Transitioned to Pressidium

In this section, I want to share with you how I transitioned to Pressidium. There's two reasons for this:

Its an important consideration for anyone moving web host

You get to discover more about Pressidium Support

The deal was done on 18 May. I signed up for the personal plan taking advantage of the reduced yearly pricing option.

I immediately received a support ticket:

"Welcome to Pressidium! Care for a FREE migration?"

Inside was a welcome message from Giannis (Co-Founder) and information required to start the FREE transition.

You might say it was the beginning of a beautiful relationship, but that's a bit luvvy-duvvy.

So lets rephrase and say it was the start of an on-going, meaningful and respectful dialogue.

Remember, I was transitioning this production site from Bluehost to Pressidium. I didn't want any downtime, or lost data and settings.

I also had to transition my email account as well.

So there were plenty of factors to prepare and plan.

Giannis and I worked out a plan together and then executed as follows:

Domains

I had purchased hosting and domains together on Bluehost. It's not good practice really. But when you start out, you often go for the easiest solution. (For clarity, I have 3 domains including azaharmedia.com, so that's why I mention domains plural).

Step 1 - Transfer Domains from Bluehost to Namecheap

This turned out to be quite painless. I opened a Namecheap account and moved 1 domain first to test the water. It transferred within a few hours. Feeling confident, I proceeded to transfer the other 2 domains across.

Status: Domains transferred to Namecheap. Website still running on Bluehost.

Site Survey

On Bluehost I had my main domain and two add-on domains - its the way Shared Hosts allow you multiple websites on one account. The Pressidium Team requested credentials so they could get on there and check things out before attempting to migrate my website from Bluehost to their servers.

Step 2 - Pressidium perform a site survey of azaharmedia.com

Pressidium checked the site and confirmed there was nothing untoward that would interfere with the migration.

Status - 18 May: Site survey completed.

Migration (Copy Phase)

Having passed the pre-checks we needed to agree a migration date. First there would be an initial copy of my site onto the Pressidium servers. The production site would continue on Bluehost until we were ready to flick the switch.

Step 3 - Pressidium copy azaharmedia.com to their servers

Pressidium decided to build a fresh new server cluster for me! So we agreed to wait a few extra hours whilst they prepared it. This pushed the migration back a day, but I was in no rush.

Once the server was ready Pressidium copied the website across within a couple of hours:

Check Website Copy

The next step was for me to check the copied site on my brand new spanking server.

Step 4 - Verify migration copy

I checked the new copied website and everything was exactly the same, nothing missed at all. So I was able to sign-off the migration copy and we were ready for the next phase.

Status - 20 May: Website Copy checked and verified.

Email

Before any DNS changes could be made I needed to complete my change of email provider. My email was running on the Bluehost mail servers and being directed to a Gmail account (as the Bluehost webmail clients are rubbish).

Pressidium do not offer email services. They are focused on WordPress Hosting.

I had pre-empted this scenario a few months earlier and had already setup an account on Zoho Mail.

Step 5 - Configure Email Domain

I changed the MX records to point to the Zoho Mail Servers and deleted the Bluehost entry.

Status - 20 May: Email working on Zoho.

DNS

Next up was the Domain Name Server (DNS) changes. Its all a bit like 'dark magic' at this point. Basically this where Pressidium needed to change the nameservers so they would point to the domain on Namecheap rather than Bluehost

Step 6 - Migrate the DNS of azaharmedia.com

Pressidium migrated the DNS of azaharmedia.com domain to Namecheap and entered the required records for both email and website.

Status - 20 May: DNS of azaharmedia.com migrated (allow another 24 hours for complete propagation). Production now running on Pressidium.

Tidy Up

Following the DNS propagation everything was confirmed as working on the new Pressidium servers! Bluehost was no more. Apart from the tidy up...

There were a few remaining actions to tidy up on Bluehost which we needed to complete.

Pressidium migrated the remaining DNS records to Namecheap and once they had propagated I was able to go into my Bluehost account and delete all the old files. Finally I was able to claim my refund on the outstanding term of my Bluehost account and say farewell!

Status - 22 May: Transition to Pressidium Completed.

Transition Summary

Hopefully the plan executed above gives you an indication of how professional and supportive Pressidium are. Even though I had a few extra changes to make, like the new Domain hosting and Email setup, the migration was completed inside a few days.

Remember: Some Managed WordPress Hosts charge for migration. This was all done for FREE by Pressidium.

Why You Should Consider Pressidium Too

The whole purpose of this WordPress Web Hosting Series has been to share my journey and also give you a rounded opinion of the hosting options available to you. I hope you have found that to be the case?

Naturally I'd like you to join the WP Revolution with me, but I understand that Pressidium won't be for everyone.

Tradeoff #1: Cost

I think Pressidium is tremendous value @ $49.90 for 3 sites. That price includes hosting and WP Support. Pressidium support SSL certificates. You buy your own and they install it!

Tradeoff #2: Plugin limitations

This was never going to be an issue for me. I knew I would have to delete plugins for Wordfence (security) and BackWPup (backup). But I also knew I was getting a far better built-in solution. I think you'll find Pressidium's restricted plugin list is less than other Managed WordPress Hosts. And quite frankly the restrictions are there for good reason.

Tradeoff #3: Multiple WordPress sites

I have the Personal Plan which entitles me to 3 WordPress installs. I can upgrade to the next plan which allows me 10 installs. Its not restrictive, it just costs more as you increase the number of installs and therefore the amount resources you consume - I think that's fair.

Tradeoff #4: Bandwidth and storage limits

The Pressidium Pinnacle Platform has Unlimited Bandwidth included, plus 10GB SSD space on the Personal Plan. There are increased amounts on the next plans in the range.

Tradeoff #5: Domain name, DNS configuration, and email

Pressidium don't provide Domain name and Email services. But they sure don't leave you stranded! I literally created the accounts with my chosen service providers and then let Pressidium manage all the DNS configuration to point everything to their servers - for FREE!

Tradeoff #6: Support hours and accessibility

Pressidium provide a 24/7 Support Portal where you can raise a support ticket and search the existing KB articles. They have also have a dedicated support email address and offer telephone support during standard hours.

Tradeoff #7: File access and editing

I have not encountered any restrictions to file access. If I did, I would simply ask Pressidium to make the change or give me access.

Tradeoff #8: Third party support

I'm paying for a premium managed service which includes WordPress support, so I would not expect to be looking for third party support. The Pressidium Support has been excellent. We have an open dialogue and just work things out together. Superb!

Here's what Pressidium had to say about the Managed WordPress Hosting Tradeoffs:

“This article was really interesting as it demonstrates how people still view Managed WordPress Hosting. Sure you can fit as many sites as you like on a shared host but the performance of those sites can be ridiculously poor.

Ultimately it comes down to what’s more important to you. The performance and safety of your WordPress website, along with the full support of a team of experienced staff, or what bang you can get for your buck.

At Pressidium we’ll never claim to be the fastest and we don’t make grandiose statements such as “your site will have 100% uptime” because realistically that’s impossible. What we do promise however, is that as a customer you’ll always receive the best security, speed, performance, price and support that’s within our power to offer.

We're building a revolution founded on honesty, experience, quality and transparency."

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I'm a freelance writer working with business owners and marketing teams to create in-depth, actionable content that resonates with their audience. When I'm not writing about digital marketing and technology, you’ll find me chilling with a thriller in Spain.

Thanks for all your help in getting this post together Stacey. It was a pleasure to write this post as the service from Pressidium has been fantastic! Looking forward to working with the team in the coming weeks and months!
– David

Seriously, this was a great email series. I love the way you have set every single step out so we can see how it was done and the actions you took. As in other conversations I have had with you, I am thinking of making the move in the next few months. Not because I dislike WPengine, but because it works out slightly cheaper.

Seriously, great web hosting series here David. I love the way you have set every single step out so we can see how it was done and the actions you took. As in other conversations I have had with you, I am thinking of making the move in the next few months. Not because I dislike WPengine, but because it works out slightly cheaper.

I remember reading Stacey’s post about Pressidium. I didn’t look into it since I was with Web Synthesis at the time.

It sounds as though Pressidium is a great fit for you though David. It’s much cheaper than many other WP Managed hosting options.

I was considering moving to SiteGround but I haven’t made my mind up yet. The time to first byte on HostGator is terrible. I’ll take a look at Pressidium and see whether they might be a good option for me.

I recall you had a good time with Web Synthesis before you moved back to HostGator. If you read the previous post you will see quite a few negative comments about HG and quite a few favourable ones for SiteGround. If you have to stick on Shared then SiteGround might prove better – can’t say personally because I haven’t tried them!

On the other hand I believe Pressidium have a great price point with 3 sites for $24.90 ($8.30 each). That’s perhaps twice the price of Shared Hosting, but the advantage of speed, security, support far outweigh the cost in my opinion.

Just let me know if you have any questions and I’ll do my best to answer.
– David

Hi, David, I didn’t see that coming! They do sound very professional and they come out better than WP Engine.

I can see that for many people they tick all the boxes. As you know I’m on a budget so this isn’t my league, at least not at the moment. I suppose if you were going to gift me some hosting I might choose them 🙂

You’ve created a very thorough series, excellent reviews with lots of input from people with experience. This has to be the go-to place for a hosting round-up.

I had heard good things about A2 previously, especially with their SSD hosting, but I’ve not tried them personally.

OK, onto your questions:

– Yes, the 30,000 visits (not page views) is shared across the three sites. It doesn’t have to be an equal distribution, so one site can have 25,000 visits, and the other two can have 2,500 each. However, this is an indication for resource usage, and Pressidium would never block a site which exceeded the plan’s limit. (There is an FAQ at the foot of their Pricing page about the definition of visits.) They are flexible and will devise custom plans where necessary.

– The main reasons for the plugin limitations are:
(1) the plugin is incompatible with the Pressidium architecture; e.g. W3 Total Cache
(2) the plugin duplicates a feature of the Pressidium platform; e.g. Image Optimization, Security and Backup.
There is an article here which defines it further and gives a link to the ‘banned’ plugins. https://pressidium.com/kb/banned-plugins/

– Zoho Mail works a treat. You add the necessary records into your Domain manager. Pressidium helped me with the transition of byteofdata.com, but I’ve since created a different site/email/domain using the same combination of Pressidium/Zoho/Namecheap. And everything works OK. Bottom line – you won’t be stranded! Pressidium and/or I will help you.

Awesome, perfect mate, cheers! Will check out your resources/links – it may be that I just make the switch anyway, given I got a really good deal on A2, so the “financial hit” to cancel wouldn’t be so bad.

So glad I’ve been able to introduce you to Pressidium – they are a relatively new company but they are providing a terrific service at a competitive price!

There are some plugin restrictions as I highlighted to Danny in the comments below, but I’m fine with them. I checked them out beforehand, and unlike yourself I don’t have HTML pages to host either. I can definitely see why a VPS solution would best meet your requirements though.

Just dropping back here to say I’ve signed up for the Personal Plan, using your details, and looking forward to moving over (already impressed with getting an email from the co-founder, half an hour after submitting a support email, two days before Christmas – wow!).

I may reach out for advice on the whole Zoho to Gmail thing, if that’s OK.

Merry Christmas, and thanks again for such a great and insightful reco. 🙂

My site wasn’t actually down during the DNS migration. Once the new records were created in Namecheap it was just a case of waiting for various name servers around the globe to propagate the new IP address. It probably took around 24 hours for everything to move over BUT during this time your visitors will not be affected.

There is a site (https://www.whatsmydns.net/#A/byteofdata.com) where you can check the status to see if your new IP address has been propagated successfully. You can see on the link that they are using ‘A’ records. If you wanted to make any updates to your website during the propagation you would need to add some entries to your local host file to ensure you updated the new IP address. But from a visitors perspective everything looks normal.

I hope that answers your questions OK. I was nervous beforehand, but honestly the guys at Pressidium took care of everything and I had no problems at all during the migration.

Interesting series, thanks. I have worked my way through various levels of terrible hosting to my current host SiteGround which I’m generally (though not 100% as of this week) happy with. I have some non-WP sites hosted with SiteGround, but I must confess the thought of WordPress support is very tempting, and it’s a lower price than similar options I’d looked at else.

I’ve heard good and bad things about SiteGround – I think there are worse options!
The Pressidium pricing is very competitive, especially if you have just one site, but the overall support and security that’s included means you can just focus on writing your content.

Let me know if you have any questions and I’ll be glad to help.
– David

I signed up for one year of hosting with Pressidium and have been completely and totally satisfied. They have gone above and beyond to make sure everything is great with no downtime and great response time. Our site is running faster with faster load times and our page has gone up in search rank. Thanks!!!!